Flipkart to sell refurbished smartphones in the coming months

Flipkart is following the footsteps of Amazon.

Back in 2016, Amazon India started selling used as well as refurbished smartphones in the country. Going on the same footsteps, Flipkart seems to be all set to start selling refurbished smartphones.

According to a report by Economic Times, the e-commerce portal is all set to start the sales of refurbished smartphones by Diwali this year. The reasons that have led Flipkart to take this decision is to take the refurbished route are the high rate of handset returns and absence of pricing advantage following the implementation of GST.

It is claimed that Flipkart has a massive inventory of returned smartphones of which many do not have any damage. In an attempt to make these smartphones worth buying, Flipkart with check the units and sell them as Flipkart certified refurbished devices. The report goes on stating that these smartphones will have limited warranty and sold at 60% to 75% of their original pricing.

The refurbished category of Amazon India include smartphones those are professionally restored. These smartphones will look like brand new devices and the delivery timeline is the same as that of new products. The refurbished smartphones can be bought using the payment options such as credit or debit cards, internet banking and cash on delivery.

Besides selling refurbished smartphones via its portal, the company is also in plans to sell these devices offline. It is claimed that Flipkart is in discussion with distributors in order to sell brands suchas Micromax, Motorola, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung's Galaxy On series via the offline stores. Notably, even Amazon India is looking out for opportunities to sell its smartphones via the offline stores.